On this day: December 14

George Washington dies, a spacecraft flies by Venus for the first time, Bob Dylan releases his first single, President George W. Bush ducks flying shoes, and tragedy hits Sandy Hook, all on this day.

19 / 38

Duncan Lock/Wikimedia Commons

1964: In the Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States, the United States Supreme Court rules that the U.S. Congress could use the Constitution's Commerce Clause power to force private businesses to abide by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Heart of Atlanta motel was a large, 216-room motel in Atlanta, Georgia, which refused to rent rooms to black patrons, in direct violation of the terms of the act.